Use Gmail? Then read this!

[bizlady]

Google's Internet search engine to pull info from users' Gmail accounts in latest expansion | StarTribune.com

Perhaps this goes a bit too far...

 

[Midpack]

Maybe I'm dense, but what's the specific concern? Email was never very private, most companies reserve the right to monitor employees work emails as they wish, which often includes private emails. Credit card companies have had similar information on cardholders for a long time no? And mailing lists? It's a double edged sword, convenience vs privacy...

 

[lemming]

I read it and didn't understand what they plan to do. Does that mean if I google kittens
I will get everyone's emails about kittens or does it only bring up my emails about kittens.

If it lets you read everyones private mail then the system will be useless, both for email and for rele vant links.

 

[Bestwifeever]

After getting feedback from the test participants, Google hopes to give all Gmail users the option of plugging their accounts into the main search engine, according to Amit Singhal, a senior vice president for the company.

It sounds like if I agree, then at some future point someone doing a Google search for Virgin Mobile cell phones, for example, might get to see my gmail from that company? Or maybe the article means that my own Virgin Mobile searches on Google would include results from my gmail as well as the results I currently get, but not from other people's gmail?

(The article was confusing to me .)

Whichever it is, it sounds like we would have to opt into it.

 

[Semiretired2008]

If I currently understand the idea - you will have to be logged into your account for the feature to work and it will be an option to sign up for so it will be your choice to use the feature or not.

 

[M Paquette]

The way this feature, now starting beta testing, will work is actually pretty reasonable. If you are logged into a Google account, AND you have enabled the option to make your Google Mail (gmail.com) searchable by Google Search, then Google Search results will show you web sites on the left side of the screen, and email search results down the right side of the screen. Searching on "amazon order", for example, would produce web links related to Amazon orders on the left side, and your emails from Amazon about orders on the right side.

 

[FUEGO]

The way this feature, now starting beta testing, will work is actually pretty reasonable. If you are logged into a Google account, AND you have enabled the option to make your Google Mail (gmail.com) searchable by Google Search, then Google Search results will show you web sites on the left side of the screen, and email search results down the right side of the screen. Searching on "amazon order", for example, would produce web links related to Amazon orders on the left side, and your emails from Amazon about orders on the right side.

You got it. Basically this means you don't have to go to gmail to search for an email, you can simply search from the google search landing page, or presumably from the little search box many of us have in the upper right corner of our internet browsers. Pretty useful feature, but I understand the privacy concerns. This could be ugly if you leave yourself logged in to gmail and someone else uses the computer to google something, and inadvertently pulls up confidential emails. Wouldn't want DW to find out about DGF and vice versa...